Schools and other governmental organizations commonly employ digital photography to generate photo IDs. Photo IDs are used by the school to identify which students should be on the school premises, to help the students with their socialization and adaptation to the school, to aid in name recognition, and to facilitate a variety of administrative functions. In another application, the highway department uses IDs to identify drivers who are approved licensed drivers of a vehicle. Another example of photo ID use is in companies, particularly large companies and governmental agencies, to enhance security, wherein access to the facility is controlled through the wearing of photo identification.
In the case of schools, student identification cards have to be generated every year, and preferably with minimum disruption to the class day. Each student has a database associated with that student, listing things such as class, home room number, social security number, birth date, etc. Also, associated with the student is a photographic image of the student. The conventional way of generating a photographic image and matching that image with the student is as follows: the school provides a selected organization with a database of all the students. The selected organization then uses this database to create camera cards. Each student has one camera card. In a photography shoot the photographer has a digital camera that is electronically tethered to a computer. The computer, which is usually a laptop, has been previously loaded with the database information needed to generate camera cards for the students. The camera cards are distributed to the students who then present their individual camera cards to the photographer at the beginning of the shoot. The student gives the card to the photographer who swipes the camera card. The card has an electromagnetic strip. After reading the camera card, the computer brings up the student's database file. The photographer then takes one or more pictures of the student. As the photos are taken the images are transferred to the LCD screen of the laptop computer and downloaded onto the database of the computer. The photographer has an opportunity to view the images, and the student may also have an opportunity to view the photos. All of the images are associated with that particular student's file. A new shoot begins when the next student's camera card is swiped into the computer, thus beginning the process anew.
This method has several advantages. It generates instant pictures. The photographer and student are able to view the image. The image is associated with the student's database file, and there is little chance that the image will be associated with the wrong individual, as the student can quickly see that the pictures are associated with his name. There are some serious negatives to this process, and many of these negatives are a consequence of the fact that a laptop computer is required for each camera. Laptop computers are expensive. Like the camera, they are battery powered and subject to failure. The photographer not only has to be proficient in photography, but also must be proficient in operating the computer. On a practical level, in judging the amount of disruption caused by the photographic session, the fact that the student can view the photos tends to slow the entire process. Disruption and delays are contrary to the wishes of the school administration, and are to be minimized, even at the expense of the student's desire to have “just one more picture taken”.
Schools and other organizations are seeking a method that is very similar to what they are used to doing, that is, shooting the pictures and developing them offsite. What is needed is a method for matching photographic images created by the digital camera to the subject (or item), where the matching process is independent of the laptop. Another advantage of maintaining autonomy of the digital camera from the laptop or any computer is that the software on computers is regularly changing, and maintaining compatibility between the digital cameras and the software running on the laptop is an ongoing issue.
What is needed is a method for matching digital photographic images to the database, wherein there is no necessity for a laptop, or other computer, to be tethered to the digital camera during the shoot.
The prior art teaches has several methods of organizing and tracking digital images. Walter Boyne, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,125 discloses a method for imputing images from a digital camera into a computer, where the data is indexed for easy retrieval at a later date. The patent is principally concerned with archiving documents. The method utilizes optical character recognition software to convert the images into text, and then generate an index of descriptive terms to index the images. Boyne does not teach the utility of a method, wherein the camera is not tethered to a computer.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,934, Seese et al. use bar code readers, which are generally referred to as “external systems”, to provide an interface without the need of an in-depth understanding of the database model. A first external system and a second external system provide for responding to an event, the event being related to communication with at least one of the first or the second external systems, and receiving a message, the message comprising a metadata event key and a session identifier, the session identifier identifying a workset database for use with the message, the workset database having a workset database structure dependent upon metadata; and processing an action series dependent upon the metadata event key. In other words, Seese '934 teaches that bar code readers can be used to trigger a second external system. Seese '934 does not teach that the bar code reader can be used to organize data.